In The Great World Malouf enters familiar Australian territory with a story of war experience and mateship. The narrative contrasts the personalities of two men and their experiences in the Second World War, Digger Keen, the archetypal, taciturn Australian, gifted with a photographic memory, and Vic Curran, whose ambition and drive take him from poverty to the top of the business world. The Great World was first published in 1990 and won the Miles Franklin Award in 1991, the Adelaide Festival Award and two international awards, the 1991 Commonwealth Prize for fiction and the Prix Femina Etranger in France for the best foreign novel. This subseries consists of a draft early version of the novel, originally titled ‘The Memorialists’, the first handwritten draft of the novel, and a typescript draft in five parts with many handwritten corrections and additions.

Correspondence from Patrick White – 7 letters
Comprises:
[File 1]: 1976 to 1990

Correspondence relating to research on the William Duckett-White family in Ireland and emigration to Australia.

Correspondence and documents relating to George Duckett-White, brother of William Duckett-White.

Letters sent and received by Bruce Whiteside as the chairman of the organisation Heart of a Nation. Some of the outgoing letters are in the form of opinion articles written for publication in newspapers.

Correspondence relating to research on Ernest White and Nindooimbah.

Correspondence relating to Duckett White family history.

Correspondence and documents relating to Albert White, William Duckett White's second son. 'The Story of the Whites of Bluff Downs' manuscript written by Maud Mills (nee White), granddaughter of William Duckett White.

Correspondence and documents relating to Helena White, daughter of William Duckett White. It also includes documents relating to the Mylnes family (known as the Lota Mylnes) and self-published copy of 'The Lota Magazine' December 1988, produced for a family reunion.